


A Bond in Blood

by Leonidas1754



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Get a friend who will witness a murder prevent your suicide and keep it all a secret, Matricide, Mild Ventfic, Multi-Classed Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Murder, Named Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), No beta reader we die like mne, Non-Graphic Violence, Past Abuse, Past Attempted Suicide, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:41:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24297520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonidas1754/pseuds/Leonidas1754
Summary: Sidurgu doesn't entirely understand their Warrior of Light, but when approached and asked for help, he doesn't hesitate to agree, even if he's very much questioning what's going on. He doesn't get anything he'd expected, and learns that the Warrior carries even more weight than previously thought.
Relationships: Rielle de Caulignont & Sidurgu Orl, Sidurgu Orl & Warrior of Light
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	A Bond in Blood

**Author's Note:**

> This is mildly venty and half brought on by finishing up the SB DRK quests, which were a giant fucking sucker punch and I want to cry a lot.  
> Warning for character death, though it's no death of any canon characters, so don't worry, Sid, Rielle, and the WoL are all... physically fine. Emotionally, not so much.

Sidurgu liked to think he had a good handle on things with Rielle and Leonidas nowadays. Or at least, he had a good handle on things with Rielle. Even if he wouldn’t admit so aloud, he figured they’d become something akin to siblings, and it was… nice, if he was being honest with himself. Which could be difficult to do sometimes. He’d gotten better about it, sure, and thankfully, Rielle seemed to understand his… emotional stubbornness, for the most part.

Leonidas, on the other hand, was an entirely separate beast. Sidurgu had thought he had the other man figured out as they spent time together, and after confronting Rielle’s mother, he figured Leonidas a simple man who tried his best to be a hero and fascinated with the arts of the Dark Knight, even if he struggled with its ideals from time to time. The man had a penchant for absorbing the knowledge of any and all battle arts, from what he had heard, so Sidurgu figured it wasn’t too strange for him to mostly be interested in the way of battle and not as much in the ideals.

But after the entire fiasco with Myste, Sidurgu wasn’t so sure he understood the Miqo’te man at all. Blessedly, he had explained Myste and the appearance of Fray upon their return to Ishgard.

“From what I’ve gathered, basically…” Leonidas had tilted his head to the side, lips pursed as he tried to explain it. “When I was learning, Fray appeared. They’re half a sentience from the soulstone itself, passing on the arts, and half, well, a manifestation of a side of me I kept and… honestly still keep tightly stamped down. Resentment, exhaustion, that sort of thing. And Myste was, well… my regrets. Over the people I have lost, over those I’ve killed. Over all those I’ve hurt in the name of… whatever the hell I have to fight for that day.” His ears had drooped as he sighed, wrapping his arms over himself. “I’m sorry for all the trouble it’s caused. And before you ask, no, I have no idea how it actually happened,” he’d added with a short laugh, “It just did.”

Sidurgu had no idea how to explain it either. Nothing like that had ever happened to  _ him _ to be certain, and if his teacher had chanced upon such, he hadn’t taught it to Sidurgu. And when he’d spoken of it, Leonidas had definitely been troubled, not that Sidurgu could possibly blame him.

What could one say when they bore witness to someone’s guilt being so potent, it took physical form with inexplicable power? If there was something suitable, Sidurgu couldn’t find it. He’d never been the best with social things in the first place, and that was an extraordinary circumstance to say the least.

So no, he didn’t have quite as good a grip on the realm’s beloved Warrior of Light as he thought he’d had. But understanding didn’t matter quite so much when he could say he could trust Leonidas, right? That was far more important.

So when Leonidas came to him one day, telling Sidurgu he needed help, there was no hesitation in his agreement.

Of course, even if Sidurgu hadn’t entirely trusted Leonidas, it would’ve been hard to refuse him in that moment. Sidurgu had seen a great many emotions on his face. Pleasant surprise at their meeting, distress at the killing of temple knights, satisfaction in learning new skills, amusement whenever Sidurgu threatened to punch a moogle, fear when Myste had become a threat to both Sidurgu and Rielle. He was simply expressive, even when hiding his true feelings, and admittedly, Sidurgu found it somewhat charming and far more amusing.

To see his face completely blank, to be unable to find the light of life in his bicolored eyes, it chilled Sidurgu to the core.

Rielle seemed to have picked up on it as well, if her concern was anything to go by. “What do you need?”

Leonidas turned his blue and green eyes to her, a flicker of guilt stirring within. “I… I need you to stay here, Rielle. To be safe and out of the way. I need… I need you to not see this.”

Rielle’s brows furrowed, and she seemed nearly ready to argue, but only considered him for a few moments before sighing. “Alright. Just  _ please _ be careful, alright? If I’m not there to heal you, well… I worry, and for good reason, considering you two keep getting yourselves hurt.”

“Thank you. I promise, Sidurgu won’t be in any danger. I just need him to watch my back for something.” Leonidas smiled, a gesture of reassurance. 

Sidurgu wasn’t buying it for a moment. Even if his words were true, he wanted Rielle out of the way for another reason entirely. Perhaps simply not wanting her to witness something. But what could Leonidas wish to protect her from, considering all she’d seen and experienced already? Sidurgu couldn’t begin to guess.

“Actually, there’s an idea- Since Sid and I won’t be here, I know a place you can go to be safe, just in case something does happen. I doubt it, but it’s best to be safe.” Leonidas nodded to her. “Would you be willing to go to House Fortemps for the day? If only for our peace of mind.”

“If it would be alright. Would they even let me in, though?” Rielle asked, frowning.

Leonidas dug a paper and quill from his pocket, jotting down a quick note. “Here, just give this to the guard. It should be enough for them to know you’re there at my behest.” He handed it to her, and she nodded.

When she walked up the stairs and out of the Forgotten Knight, the smile faded from Leonidas’s lips, and his expression was disturbingly blank once more. Sidurgu folded his arms. “So what exactly do you need me to do?”

“... I will be setting out from the Falcon’s Nest with someone. I need you to follow us. To witness, to… to make sure I don’t fall too far.” Leonidas took a deep breath, folding his arms around himself.

Sidurgu’s eyes narrowed. “Too far by my standards, or by yours? You know I do not flinch at drawing blood.” And outright killing, the unspoken words between them.

Leonidas seemed to work his jaw for a few moments, as if contemplating what to say. “... By yours. It’s not their blood spilling I fear. In fact, I think it’s inevitable. I need to go now, if I want to meet her on time. Run ahead to the nest, please, I’ll try to delay a bit to give you time to get there.”

Sidurgu nodded, and Leonidas made his way up the stairs rather quickly, leaving Sidurgu with plenty of questions. As he headed toward the porter to take a flight to the Falcon’s Nest, he couldn’t help but wonder what, exactly, Leonidas meant by preventing him from going too far by Sidgurdu’s standards. When he arrived, he made his way to the aetheryte and leaned against the tower wall, just taking in the nest and having a clear view of the direction Leonidas and his mystery companion would be arriving from.

The only thing that really came to mind was perhaps senseless torture. Leonidas didn’t really seem like the type, though, to hurt someone for little to no reason. But he also wasn’t the type to ask these sorts of things for no reason, to keep Rielle away for this mission. So either Sidurgu was missing something, or he didn’t have all of the information.

Sidurgu wasn’t left stewing in his thoughts for long. He caught a glimpse of Leonidas’s familiar purple and black ensemble and was careful to watch them out of the corner of his eye. His guest, however, surprised Sidurgu. The stranger was a Miqo’te woman of middling age, with red hair just like Leonidas’s, and resembled him just enough that Sidurgu could guess they were related somehow.

The problem was that Sidurgu knew about as much as the rest of the realm about Leonidas’s family, and the realm at large knew little to nothing. Sidurgu had heard a thousand stories about Leonidas’s past prior to becoming the Warrior of Light, and nearly all of them contradict one another. Upon being asked, once, Leonidas had simply laughed about it and commented that the people of Eorzea truly enjoyed their stories. Sidurgu took the hint and didn’t ask again, understanding the desire to simply keep the truth under wraps.

He set out after them, carefully keeping the distance enough to not be easily spotted without losing them. The two Miqo’te gradually trekked through the snow, carving a path of their own and leaving Sidurgu to follow in their wake. When they arrived at the bridge, instead of crossing it, Leonidas motioned for the woman to follow and took a path to the side, down into the valley.

They finally reached the bottom as Sidurgu creeped down the side, and approached the opposite side of the valley. They appeared to be talking over what appeared to be some sort of mineral deposit, to Sidurgu’s inexperienced eyes. Right, Leonidas knew the mining trade as well, didn’t he? Ridiculous.

Sidurgu settled down in a suitable hiding spot, watching them carefully. They seemed to talk for a bit, first amicably, but even from this distance, Sidurgu could see the air grow tense between them.

The woman’s expression went from happy and amused to more and more furious and cold. After a bit more arguing, she drew a knife. Leonidas almost looked resigned, to Sidurgu’s surprise, and instead of pulling his sword, pulled his own knife from a strap on his thigh.

Their fight was no less intense for the smaller weapons. Leonidas’s skill was obvious, but even with Sidurgu’s lack of familiarity with the art, he could tell Leonidas was holding back. Even if he genuinely wasn’t skilled with knives, he also refused to pull the weapon directly on his back, nor any of the others in the arsenal Sidurgu knew him to carry around. They seemed to be arguing about something still, but although Sidurgu could hear their voices, he couldn’t make out a word of what was said.

Sidurgu placed a hand on his own sword as he saw Leonidas take a rather deep slash to his arm. Leonidas reeled back, but his grip on his knife grew tighter. He lunged forward, nailing the woman with a rather sharp left hook to the jaw before tackling her to the ground and slashing the knife through her neck.

The woman twitched on the ground before going limp.

Sidurgu stood, figuring there was no need for him to stay hidden anymore. He carefully made his way down the cliff, but when he reached the bottom, he nearly froze in alarm. Leonidas was holding the knife again, this time nearing his own neck.

“HEY!” Sidurgu lurched forward, tackling Leonidas to the ground. Leonidas grunted out as he hit the ground and looked up at Sidurgu, startled, almost as if he didn’t recognize the other. When he said nothing, Sidurgu growled out in frustration. “What the hell were you going to do?!”

Leonidas didn’t answer, not at first, at least. Tears brimmed in his eyes, quickly overflowing. “Thank you,” he murmured out, eyes closing as his shoulders began to shake.

Sidurgu was confused for a moment, before a chill of realization ran down his spine. This had to be what Leonidas had been referring to, in wanting Sigurd to stop him. It wasn’t about hurting someone else. It was about hurting himself, potentially even ending his own life. And anger flared within Sidurgu once more. “What the hell?!  _ That _ was what you wanted?! What the hell were you-” He wanted to continue, but he cut himself off as Leonidas continued to cry. Whatever answers he wanted, he was not about to get them. And whatever had just happened clearly took its toll.

Carefully, Sidurgu removed himself from atop Leonidas and pulled the other into his arms and out of the snow. Leonidas quickly curled up tightly and pressed close to Sidurgu, the tears only beginning to come faster as he ran his hand over his arm, healing the cut there. It was certainly awkward, as Sidurgu had never been good at dealing with crying people, but it was clear this was needed. So he held the sobbing man close, listening as his voice became less of that of a man, and more akin to a wounded beast.

Gradually, Leonidas’s cries died down, and he went still. “Are you going to be alright?” Sidurgu asked, voice softer than he’d intended.

Leonidas sniffed, peeking up. “I promise, I’ll explain, I just… I’m sorry,” he rasped out, the guilt evident all over his face.

Sidurgu sighed. “Yea. C’mon, let’s get back, I’ll-”

“Wait! Wait, please, I… There’s one more thing I have to do.” Leonidas pulled away from Sidurgu to get up, standing on shaky legs.

Sidurgu stood as well, watching him carefully. Leonidas pocketed the knife and instead drew a dark staff. He murmured softly, gathering the power, and a rather potent fire spell burst forth, setting the body of the woman alight. The smell of burning flesh filled the air, and Leonidas simply stared at the fire, watching the body burn. After some time, the flames died down into smoldering ash. Sidurgu felt slightly disturbed by the fact that there was little left other than bone, the fire spell being so strong. After the fire died down, Leonidas began to shove snow over the ash and bone. Sidurgu crouched down to help, and together, they buried the dead.

When he stood again, Leonidas nearly collapsed. Sidurgu caught him and lifted him up, frowning. “Hey, are you alright?”

“It took a lot out of me,” Leonidas replied, looking up at him. “I’m sorry for all of this…”

“Was that one of your phantoms?” Sidurgu asked curiously. He turned and headed back up the cliffside.

Leonidas let out a soft, bitter laugh. “I wish. That would make things so much easier…”

Easier than the craziness that was dealing with Myste? That definitely wasn’t a good sign. He carried Leonidas as the snow picked up, quickly beginning to come down. Sidurgu cursed under his breath as he realized conditions were getting bad, and fast.

“A whiteout,” Leonidas murmured in his arms. “We need to find shelter, or we’ll be buried.”

“Yea.” Sidurgu glanced around. “... We’ll have to go back. The valley walls can provide some shelter, at least, and we’re unlikely to find better just wandering around.”

Leonidas nodded. Sidurgu turned back and shuffled through the growing snows to duck down into the valley. He found a set of rocks that provided them some shelter from the wind alongside the cliff wall and hunkered down, setting Leonidas down. Leonidas tugged a large blanket from his bag. “Here, we can cover the place with this… Should at least keep the wind out.”

Sidurgu nodded and helped Leonidas pull the blanket over the rocks, plunging them into darkness. The wind was muffled, but still audible outside, and Sidurgu was struck by the fact that they were likely no more than a hundred yalms from the bones of the woman Leonidas had killed.

Leonidas pulled out a tome and summoned a red carbuncle, filling their makeshift shelter with a soft red glow. Leonidas took it in his arms and glanced up at Sidurgu. “I… I should tell you. Why I killed her.”

“I don’t give a damn why you killed her, Leonidas,” Sidurgu said, crossing his arms and hunching over to better fit. “I’m sure you had your reasons. What I want to know is why the hell you looked like you were about to slit your own gods damned throat.”

To his surprise, Leonidas smiled. It was weak and sad, but a smile all the same. “That’s why I asked for your help. Because… Because you can accept that. You can accept that I didn’t…” He sniffed, tears beginning to fall from his eyes again. “I-I’m sorry. It’s really…”

Sidurgu frowned. In a moment of pity, or perhaps madness, he shifted over and pulled Leonidas into his lap. Leonidas looked rather startled by it, though the carbuncle leaped into his lap and circled down, settling in. Leonidas flushed softly and closed his eyes.

Sidurgu placed a hand on Leonidas’s back. “Start from the beginning. That woman… She looked like she could be related to you.”

Leonidas nodded. “She… Keeper culture values women over men, right? Since our names and families are based around the mother of the family.”

“Alright. Being a man in that culture, then, isn’t the best thing, I suppose.” Sidurgu lightly rubbed his back.

“It’s not that terrible, just…” Leonidas sighed, relaxing against him. “It’s not bad for most. My troubles didn’t come from being a man, not directly at least. I was… I was the tenth son of eleven children. The last before my mom finally had a daughter.”

Sidurgu paused. “That… is a lot of children.”

A watery giggle burst from Leonidas. “Y-Yea, it is, huh? And being the last son…” He ran his fingers through the carbuncle’s fur. “I know better now. I’m capable of a lot, even without the Blessing of Light, I… I’m skilled. But when you’re the tenth child, it was often as though I couldn’t do anything they couldn’t do. They were older, more skilled, and I… didn’t have much worth.”

Sidurgu frowned. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Of course. But… That’s how it was.” He sighed softly and laid his head against Sidurgu’s shoulder. “And then the Calamity happened. And one by one… Some of them died when the moon fell. Others to sickness, or beasts, or… It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that within two years, it was just… My mother and myself.”

A chill ran down Sidurgu’s spine. He didn’t like where this was going. “Your mother… That was her, wasn’t it?”

Swallowing, Leonidas nodded. “Yea. It… It took me a long time to learn that what happened to me growing up wasn’t normal, that it wasn’t good. Being worthless to your family, feeling as though you are nothing… Having your own mother treat you that way. It’s not right.”

Sidurgu squeezed him tightly. “You’re right. It’s not.”

Leonidas took a deep breath, shuddering. “I… Three years after the Calamity, I threw myself off a cliff into the ocean. I wanted… My mind was dark, at the time. I was the last of my family besides my mother, she’d lost everything, and I just… I had nothing besides her, Sid. There was no one else. And she didn’t want me. And so… I prayed the gods would.”

He sounded as sick as Sidurgu felt. He didn’t know what to say, if anything at all. It was too much, far too much, for anyone to go through. He couldn’t begin to understand it, but he knew that abuse did things to people, it warped them in horrible ways.

Leonidas’s shoulders shook. “Even the gods didn’t want me. That’s what it felt like when I survived, at least. My siblings and father were gone, my mother hated me, and even the gods had abandoned me. Of course, I know better now, that there were other plans, that soon… soon the entire realm would want me,” he said, a hollow laugh sounding from his chest. “Is it bad that I wish they didn’t, now?”

“I understand.” Sidurgu continued to rub his back. The wind howled and the snow continued to gather, the sky growing darker outside and leaving them to the mercy of the carbuncle’s soft glow. “I can’t judge whether you should or not, I just… I understand.”

“... I  _ am _ happy. It’s hard, it’s exhausting, and oftentimes I wish someone else could do it, but at the same time… I’m glad I can help people. I’m glad I can be useful. I’m happy to learn, to see all these things I’d never seen before. When I became an adventurer… I decided I had died that day I tossed myself into the ocean. That me didn’t exist anymore. And I chose my name, and started over. In a way… I’ve always been running, I think. Running from the past, running from her.” Leonidas closed his eyes. “But as I grew more and more famous… There were less and less places I could hide.”

Quiet fell between them again, but Sidurgu didn’t press. He had his answer now, or at least, enough to form his own. Leonidas had nearly killed himself due to the trauma his mother had put him through. That was enough for him to know. If Leonidas wanted to continue explaining, he could.

And Leonidas did, after some time. “She came to me yesterday. She’d been asking around for me, searching for me. For her son who became the beloved Warrior of Light. And… For a moment, I thought maybe things had changed, that she’d regretted what she’d done. But she didn’t.”

“You were useful to her now,” Sidurgu mumbled. “She could use your fame to benefit herself, if she wanted.”

“Yup. That’s exactly what she wanted, too. No apology. No regret. She was annoyed with me for running away. But she forgave me, because I made something of myself.” Leonidas sighed, shivering as he curled up tighter around Carbuncle. “I came to you because I wanted someone who understood, who would accept. Someone… someone who would forgive me for keeping this from them.”

Sidurgu sighed. Even after all this, Leonidas was desperate for some notion of forgiveness. But all the same… Maybe this time, it was something Sidurgu could give. “I forgive you. For not telling me upfront, for putting me in a position to save you if you needed it. I forgive you. The rest isn’t mine to forgive.”

“I know,” Leonidas said with a sniffle. “I know. Thank you. I… I had to do it. I had to. There are few places I could run, few places I could hide, and none without abandoning everything and everyone. I… I couldn’t run anymore. There would be no way to be free of her unless she was dead. Eorzea… They wouldn’t understand, even if I  _ could _ tell them all. It’s been difficult enough, telling you.”

Sidurgu closed his eyes, resting his nose against Leondias’s hair. “It weighs as it should.”

Nodding, Leonidas reached up and wiped his eyes. “She had to die for me to be free. And I could have hired someone, or lured her into a trap, or to some wild beast that could kill her. Hells, I could have just asked  _ you, _ ” he said with a soft laugh, “I could have told you the truth and you might’ve actually done it.”

“I would have,” Sidurgu corrected. “Not without any explanation, maybe, but even if you’d only told me part of what you have now, I would have.”

“I couldn’t do that, though. It… It’s my weight to bear. If she was to die, it had to be by my hand. Nothing else. And… I tried. I tried to give her another chance. To leave, to leave me alone forever. To not speak that name she once called me.”

Sidurgu sighed. “That mercy of yours is going to get you killed, one of these days.”

“When it does… I won’t regret it. The day I can’t offer mercy is the day I deserve death,” Leonidas murmured. “She didn’t take it, as you might’ve guessed. She told me that if I was going to be like that, I was better off dead to her. It wasn’t the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. And that makes me feel guilty, in a way, because shouldn’t it be? Killing your own blood, shouldn’t that be the most difficult thing you’ve ever done?”

Sidurgu snorted. “You’ve killed gods and monsters and gone up against things no other person in the realm could. Of course it wasn’t the most difficult thing you’ve done.”

Leonidas chuckled. “Yea… I guess so. But I did it. I killed her. And… Honestly, I forgot you were there. I just… I was so consumed by my guilt, I wanted to die all over again.”

“I’m glad I was there. I’m glad you came to me. Scared the shit out of me, but… Honestly, had I known that was a possibility, I would’ve stopped you altogether, probably. And this might be for the best.”

“It weighs as it should,” Leonidas repeated quietly. He sniffed and nuzzled into the Carbuncle. “And with any luck… No one will find her. I brought her down here so that’d be less likely. Wanted to show her a rare mineral deposit, I told her. Good thing I don’t often need yellow copper,” he added with a soft laugh.

“Yea. What about the people who saw you with her, though? What will you tell them?”

“I’ve already got that covered. If anyone asks, I’ll tell them she was looking for a guide to Illyshire. I brought her to the edge of the coerthas highlands and when she spotted it in the distance and knew where she was going, we parted ways. Simple as that,” Leonidas explained.

Sidurgu hummed in thought. “If anyone asks me, I’ll tell them I was there, watching your back, in case she turned out to have ulterior motives.”

Leonidas laughed softly. “Not terribly far from the truth, really,” he said. 

He relaxed against Sidurgu. Sidurgu wrapped himself around Leonidas as best he could. While he’d still thought Leonidas needed to learn to accept the dark truth of their profession in some ways, no one deserved to go through that. “You’re safe now,” he murmured, nuzzling lightly against Leonidas’s ear. “You’re safe. She can’t hurt you, not anymore.”

Gradually, Leonidas relaxed in Sidurgu’s arms, until he eventually fell asleep. Sidurgu glanced up with a sigh, wondering how long this blizzard would last. He didn’t fancy freezing to death out here, or getting stuck here for days on end.

He stayed quiet, letting Leondias rest after his ordeal, and waited. He ended up dozing against Leonidas as he listened for the wind to stop, and lost track of the time.

After a while, the wind stopped, and Sidurgu glanced up. Carefully, he stood, lifting Leonidas with one arm and pushing the blanket off with the other. He slung it over his shoulder and began walking up the cliff, glancing down at the Miqo’te and the Carbuncle still in his arms. It looked up at him. 

“You gonna keep him warm?” Sidurgu asked, raising a brow.

The Carbuncle lowered its head onto Leonidas’s chest, closing its own eyes. Sidurgu felt a little silly for talking to it, now. Hmph.

The snow still fell down, though nowhere near as heavily, and Sidurgu noted that their previous tracks were completely gone. No one would be able to tell there’d been another person with them, nor that they’d only gone to the bridge rather than the Dravanian Hinterlands. Their secret would stay safe, the bones buried under the snow.

As they drew near the Falcon’s Nest, a guard ran out to meet them. “Ah, you’re safe! When that storm kicked up, we’d gotten worried…” HIs eyes mostly seemed to be on Leonidas rather than Sidurgu himself. “Ah, is he alright..?”

“He just needs some rest. We’re heading back to Ishgard. Is there a chocobo available that could carry both of us?” Sidurgu asked, not wishing to wake Leonidas for the trip back.

The soldier nodded. “I’ll check for you,” he said before jogging toward the chocobokeep. Sidurgu followed far slower.

Thankfully, it seemed there was a bird available, and while keeping his balance in flight while holding someone wasn’t necessarily easy, it was doable. When they arrived back at Ishgard, Sidurgu decided to head straight to House Fortemps, both to retrieve Rielle, and because it would be a safe place for Leonidas to rest.

Sidurgu could feel people’s eyes on him as he walked through Ishgard, but he did his best to ignore it. No one else mattered at this moment. The guard in front of the manor, upon seeing Leondias, let them in without a word. In the hall was Rielle speaking with an older man Sidurgu guessed was Edmont de Fortemps. He looked rather startled upon seeing Sidurgu enter.

“Sid! Are you both alright?” Rielle asked, looking worried.

“We’re fine, Leonidas just needs some rest. Is there a place he can lay?” Sidurgu asked, looking to the lord.

Nodding, Edmont gestured for him to follow “We have a room set aside for times he might have need of it. Come. Do you know what happened?”

“He was just escorting someone, with me following in case. He probably just overexerted himself.” Sidurgu shifted Leonidas in his arms. “We got stuck in a blizzard for a bit as well.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re alright. Your friend was a bit of a surprise guest, but I figure he wouldn’t send her here if he didn’t feel the need,” Edmont said.

Sidurgu winced. “Yea, we… We didn’t want her in danger for this. You know how it is, out there.”

“Of course. I worry about him, but… It’s not as though I can stop him. He has many responsibilities, these days…” Edmont lamented. “It’s good to see someone looking out for him.”

Sidurgu just nodded awkwardly, not really sure what to say. Edmont opened the door to a room and Sidurgu stepped inside, carefully placing Leonidas on the bed. Then he sat down, folding his hands in front of him as he leaned his elbows on his knees. Leonidas curled up around his Carbuncle, still sleeping soundly. Edmont closed the door, leaving them alone, something Sidurgu found himself surprisingly thankful for.

In all honesty, Sidurgu still wasn’t entirely sure how to handle the information he’d just been given. How heavy the sins and pain must weigh on the soul of their beloved Warrior, and how little idea Eorzea as a whole had about it all. Sidurgu wondered if the leaders of these city-states truly understood how much weight was being placed on Leonidas’s shoulders, how much they asked of one man.

It wasn’t fair. But what in life was? And as long as he was asked, it seemed Leonidas was intent on accepting it. Sidurgu sighed softly, lost in his contemplation. He didn’t know how long had passed before the door opened again, and Rielle stepped inside. She quietly stepped to Leonidas’s bedside.

Her worry was quite clear from her expression. “Is everything really alright, Sid? Before you left, Leonidas, he seemed… He seemed like he was in trouble.”

Sidurgu looked to her, weighing his response carefully. He couldn’t tell her what had happened, not when Leonidas clearly wanted to keep it from her for now, but he couldn’t exactly brush her off either. “He… was, yes. And he needed my help for it. But it’s alright. The trouble… He’ll be alright. It will leave its mark, but…”

“It weighs as it should?” she asked, smiling with faint sympathy.

“... Yea.” It seemed almost like a mantra for Leonidas. Sidurgu had to wonder how much weight he carried, how much further he could go. “He might tell you at some point, but it’s his story to tell. So far, apparently I’m the only one to find out.”

Rielle nodded and sat on the edge of the bed, both turning to watch Leonidas sleep.

Perhaps, one day, Leonidas could truly rest, to lay down his burdens for a time and cease walking the line between having to do as the world expected of him and doing what he desired. It was more likely he’d die first, though, Sidurgu figured. That was the way their world was.

Leonidas stirred, yawning a little and peeking his eyes open. He looked surprised to see Rielle there before somewhat smiling at her, then at Sidurgu. Sidurgu smiled back.


End file.
